


Deleted Scenes

by melancholy_aries



Series: Kintsugi-verse [3]
Category: Bleach
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:40:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29856843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melancholy_aries/pseuds/melancholy_aries
Summary: I think I will be using this to publish scenes that I've already written, but have mostly been discarded for one reason or another. Some of them may, eventually, be adapted to fit into Kintsugi, but they might not. This is my way of placating my guilt for when I take so long to post updates to Kintsugi, lol
Series: Kintsugi-verse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035204
Kudos: 3





	Deleted Scenes

**Author's Note:**

> This scene takes place right after the confrontation at Kurosaki Clinic in the first chapter of Kintsugi, only things ended a little differently than what you've already read. I thought about altering it, trying to make it fit, but at least for now, that would only be a distraction from what I'm trying to write for Kintsugi's next installment. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this seemingly-trivial scene, but I chose it because it contains the conversation that will eventually trigger Asami's and Grimmjow's foray into BDSM.

Outside the clinic, Grimmjow was leaning against the clinic wall, chucking rocks at the trashcan across the street. 

What the fuck was going on? Who the hell was this woman who threw him so far off his game he wasn’t even on the field anymore? Given his history, Grimmjow should want nothing to do with a woman who made him consider giving up Pantera without even asking, not to mention the para-whatever shift she’d forced on him. 

The whole thing made him angry, made him feel powerless and stupid. 

And then she was standing in front of him and he could barely think coherently, let alone speak coherently, and he felt even dumber and even more powerless. And even more angry.

“Finish off _Ichigo-kun_?” He asked, using a falsetto for Ichigo’s name as he made a crude gesture.

Asami narrowed her eyes and scowled at him. “If you’re just going to attack my honor and my professionalism, I don’t want you walking me to the store.”

And then she just looked at him and Grimmjow didn’t know what the fuck to do with that. She wasn’t stalking off like Hollybell would’ve, wasn’t taking a jab of her own like fucking Loly, and wasn’t yelling like Nel. She was just...waiting for him to tell her what his choice was, giving him time to consider his options. He could stay here and get what he came for—a confrontation with Ichigo—or he could learn more about Asami. And while part of Grimmjow was still itching for that spar, a new part was far more intrigued by this woman than by yet another fight with Ichigo.

“I don’t want to stay here.”

“What do you want?” She asked wisely, if a bit snarky.

Well, that was a stumper. Grimmjow just blinked down at her, trying to get his brain to work. “You,” was all he was able to come up with.

She blinked back at him, stunned, but managed a small smile as she said, “You might consider changing your approach.”

“How?” He asked sincerely.

“Well, a good start would be to apologize for calling me a prostitute.”

Grimmjow winced as he realized that he had done that. 

“And if you want bonus points, you could apologize for threatening to run my face through with a sword. Though, I knew you weren’t really gonna do it, so while I don’t require an apology for that, it would make me happy.”

Grimmjow definitely wanted bonus points—and, oddly, to make her happy—but he wasn’t even sure how to get the regular points. He couldn’t remember ever actually apologizing to anyone, not even Aizen. Sure, he’d had to backtrack with the God-Wannabe a few times, but he’d never given a true apology and Aizen had seemed to accept that it was something Grimmjow wasn’t capable of and let him off the hook.

Grimmjow wracked his brain for any example of an apology but could only come up with memories of that creepy Ichimaru, who had never sounded sincere, anyway. Fuck, why was this so hard?

“If you’re not going to apologize,” Asami said with irritation, “you could at least tell me so and let me get on with my errand.”

“I don’t know how.” Grimmjow bit out grudgingly and with no small amount of frustration.

“Well, that’s not a red-flag.”

“Gimme a minute to figure it out, woman, damn.”

Asami surprised Grimmjow by laughing and nodding her head. “Yeah, okay. I can wait.”

Good. Great...Now what?

Without the pressure of time, Grimmjow could think a little more clearly. Okay, so he had called her a whore and threatened to kill her—he couldn’t undo that, though he wished he could. She seemed willing to let him try, though. Was it as simple as saying that? He definitely regretted both of those things, though if he hadn’t stuck Pantera in her face...well, he’d learned even more about himself than he had learned about her. Things that changed his perspective of himself and others so thoroughly that he really didn’t know what was going on.

“I wish I hadn’t said that to you, about Ichigo.” Grimmjow shrugged. “Can I take it back? Are take-backs a thing with humans?”

“They’re a thing with some of us.”

“Including you?”

“Yeah, including me.”

“Then I take it back.” He said simply, definitively. “And I really regret pointing Pantera at you. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t feel like a piece of fucking driftwood.”

“Right, paradigm shift.” She nodded as if that explained everything. “Those’ll put most people in a bad mood. Wanna tell me about it?”

“No! I want you to take it back.” He only half-joked. “Make it go away.”

Asami gave him a look he couldn’t decipher but that made him feel extremely exposed. It was uncomfortable and vaguely terrifying yet he didn’t want to kill her or run away. 

“Well, the thing about paradigm shifts, Grimmjow, is that they can’t go away. You can ignore them, but that option is a whole lot more painful and frustrating than embracing them. Trust me.”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t just un-see something that tilts your axis. Once that filter is removed, it’ll never totally fit again.”

“No—why should I trust you?”

“Oh.” Asami blinked. “Uh...well, because I’ve tried ignoring paradigm shifts before and it never ended well.”

“Maybe you did it wrong.” He smiled, sharp but playful.

“Yeah, maybe.” She laughed. “Grimmjow.” Asami put her hand on his forearm and though it seemed like a normal hand, he would swear it was burning his skin, branding him with her seal. ”I’m sorry you feel lost in your new reality. But, if this paradigm shift is what allowed you to apologize for the first time in your life, I can’t say I regret being the catalyst. I really, really appreciate your willingness to let me be the first person you’ve ever apologized to. You did a good job, by the way.”

“Tch.” He blushed and tilted his head back haughtily. “O’course I did.”

“You’re welcome to walk me to the store again, if you’d like. But I understand if you want to think some things over.”

“S’a point of thinking if I ain’t got anyone to bounce my thoughts off?”

Once again, Asami could do nothing but blink at him for a moment. “That’s fair.”

“We walkin’ or what?”

“So,” Asami began once they were halfway down the block, “you named your sword Pantera? Like the band?”

“The band of what?” Grimmjow asked, thinking of some gold armband out there somewhere named Pantera.

“Um...of heavy metal music?”

“The hell is that?”

Asami pulled out her phone and scrolled through until she found Pantera and then selected _Walk_. The moment the heavy guitars began to blare, Grimmjow grimaced and once the singing started, he looked at her like she was crazy.

“You actually choose to listen to this?”

“I don’t know a single massage therapist who doesn’t.” She shrugged and turned the music off. “After hours of world music and ocean sounds, heavy metal is the best antidote. I thought you’d like it, honestly. Especially this song. I think it suits you.”

“You don’t know me,” he replied automatically.

Asami laughed at his petulance, the stereotypical pout of a teenager. “That’s true, I don’t. But, do _you_ know you, either?”

“Tch.” He clicked his tongue and looked away.

“Wanna bounce some of those thoughts off me?”

“No.”

“Okay. Why Pantera?” She asked as they turned down the street the store was on.

“I didn’t choose her name, that’s just what it is. My adjuchas form was a tiger, so, makes sense.”

“Ah. ‘Kay, once we’re inside, I’m not gonna talk to you ‘cause I don’t need people thinking I’m crazy. Again,” she added under her breath.

Asami went directly to the produce section and grabbed a vegetable bag for the jalapeños. As she felt each jalapeño before selecting it, Grimmjow looked around them in disgust. Humans were so fucking lazy. All this food in one place, no one had to hunt? What kind of life was this? Not only was hunting fun, it made a person appreciate the food they were shoveling into their mouth.

As an Arrancar, Grimmjow ate reiryoku, usually by way of eating lower-level hollows every couple weeks or so. Although, the amount of reiryoku Ichigo wasted just by not bothering to control his reiatsu output was enough to keep Grimmjow from ever truly being hungry in the time between their spars. Dumb kid. Grimmjow was determined to use Ichigo’s carelessness against him, to win not just because he was stronger, but smarter, faster, and more capable, too.

Looking around him, knowing this was how Ichigo lived, made Grimmjow even more embarrassed that he had never officially beaten the ginger. 

“You are awfully huffy.” Asami said quietly while tying up the bag of jalapeños.

“Thought you weren’t talkin’ to me.”

“No one’s around.” She shrugged and walked passed him toward the meat section. “You gonna tell me what’s bothering you?”

“This whole fucking place.” He grouched. “How humans ever became the dominant species is a fuckin’ mystery to me.”

“Because of grocery stores?” She laughed and added two pounds of bacon to her basket. Then, to herself, “I wonder if they have vegan cheese here?”

“The fuck is that?”

“Hmm? It’s cashews, basically.” She answered as she walked to the specialty aisle. “Dairy-free version of a traditional dairy—.” 

Grimmjow grinned mischievously as he took in the two other people on this aisle and Asami’s newly-tensed form.

“Silent treatment again?” He teased, tugging hard enough on her hair that she had to tense even further to keep her head from following but not hard enough to catch anyone’s notice. “Bet I can get you to talk to me in front of all these people.”

Asami’s eyes narrowed and flicked in Grimmjow’s direction with a distinct _don’t you dare_ quality to them. Grimmjow’s grin just widened and he tugged her hair again. “Challenge accepted, darlin’.”

Asami scoffed, and to cover up when the other two people in the aisle looked at her quizzically, she simply shook her head and reached into one of the coolers, mumbling, “It’s right there, you blind bat.”

And to her relief, it actually was; she wouldn’t have to buy a superfluous ingredient because she was too embarrassed to put it back.

“Not bad.” Grimmjow praised her as she walked away, this time toward the register.

He only had a few more minutes to make good on his bet, so he followed her to the line, where she was currently fourth. He began by simply batting at the basket on her arm but she quickly adapted by holding it tight to her ribs rather than dangling it from her elbow, preventing it from swinging to and fro.

Undeterred, Grimmjow leaned down with his face perpendicular to Asami’s and waited. Once her curiosity finally got the best of her, she side-eyed him and Grimmjow pounced by blowing a short puff of air in her face. He burst into laughter at her shocked expression, but his amusement was as short-lived as her shock. 

Grimmjow watched with growing irritation as she calmly pulled a clip from her pocket and wiggled a piece of paper free of it. Was that how humans got food? They exchanged _paper_?

What the hell kind of place was this Living World?

He quickly refocused his efforts when the person in front of Asami suddenly ducked out of line because he forgot something, telling Asami to go ahead of him. There was only one person in front of her and Grimmjow refused to lose. He draped himself across her shoulders, his face in her face once again, and allowed much of his body weight to rest against her, stopping only when he heard her breath catch.

“I know you want to yell at me, woman.” Grimmjow smiled smugly at how her mouth twitched. “I can see your jaw tense. I know you’re just dying to throw me off you and scream in my face. Come on, you know you wanna.” He reached up with his finger and poked her cheek, laughing when he watched her jaw work and knew she must be biting her tongue.

“Come on!”

“Next.” 

Asami surprised the hell out of Grimmjow by stepping up to the register with only a hint of struggle at the extra weight she was under, then spending the next couple minutes chatting pleasantly with the cashier as Grimmjow pinched, poked, prodded, and otherwise made a nuisance of himself. In his final, last ditch effort, he nipped her jaw, hard enough to hurt but not enough to draw anyone’s attention to the distorted skin.

Asami didn’t even flinch and now Grimmjow was pissed, stomping out of the store with her walking merrily behind him.

“What the hell are you?” Grimmjow demanded once he was sure there was no one to see them. “Even Ulquiorra would’ve responded to all that!”

Asami simply smiled happily at him. “You really did used to be a cat, didn’t you?”

“The hell’s that got to do with anything?”

“It’s a rule of mine to give humans as much consideration as I give cats. Which, to be perfectly honest, is not as much consideration as I give dogs, but still—if people can adore their cats even when the gremlins are knocking coffee all over their laptops and clawing at them one moment like their lives depend on preventing human contact, then flopping onto their faces like they’ll die if they don’t get pet this instant, then people can make the same allowances for other people.”

“I’m not human.”

“Debatable.” She shrugged, catching Grimmjow off-guard. “Now, what do I get for winning the bet?”

“Tch. Whaddya want?”

“How ‘bout a piggy-back ride? No one’s around to see me floating through the air.”

Grimmjow just blinked at her. “What the hell is a piggy-back ride? And which one of us is the pig?”

/////

Ichigo’s eyes widened comically when he opened his front door to find Grimmjow with Asami perched on his back like Yachiru with Kenpachi, and he spluttered for a few moments before blurting out, “That was real?!”

“Sure was, sleeping beauty.” Asami smiled at him.

“Move, sub.” Grimmjow pushed Ichigo out of the way and waltzed into the house.

“Don-don’t call me that!”

“Why not?” Grimmjow growled over his shoulder. “It’s what you are: a sub-par _sub_ stitute Shinigami.”

“Uh, Grimmjow?” Asami said softly so only he and Ichigo, who had just pulled alongside them, could hear. Isshin and his daughters were in the living room just a few feet away, preparing the space for their guests. “That is not what calling someone a ‘sub’ means.”

“What else would it mean?”

“It’s, uh...something sexual.”

It was comical how Grimmjow froze mid-step, his foot dangling in the air for a moment while he composed himself. Eventually, he cleared his throat and half-turned to face Ichigo, whose face was almost the color of his hair.

Grimmjow cleared his throat again and said, “I take it back.”

Ichigo’s jaw dropped. “Did you just apologize to me?”

“He’s been practicing.” Asami said fondly.

“Tch.” Grimmjow unceremoniously released his hold on Asami, leaving her to slide down his back to the floor. “Get off me, woman.”

“Such a grouch.” She smirked as she straightened out her clothes. “Where’s the kitchen, Ichigo?”

“This way.”

Asami cut the jalapeños, Ichigo scooped the cashew-cheese into them, and Grimmjow wrapped them in bacon and stuck the toothpicks through the center. Between the three of them, the poppers were in the oven in under five minutes, a record for Asami.

“Thanks for your help, guys.” Asami smiled at them while she thoroughly washed her hands. Ichigo was up next, then Grimmjow. “We’ll flip ‘em in about five minutes and they should be ready in ten.”

“Hey, Asami, you know bacon isn’t vegan, right?” Ichigo teased.

“What? Really?” She feigned her shock so well that Ichigo froze, unsure of what to say to something like that.

“I don’t know what ‘vegan’ means,” Grimmjow cut in, “but I know what she looks like when she’s lyin’, and that’s it. Devious woman.”

Asami laughed and reached up to pinch Grimmjow’s cheek. “Don’t be salty that you lost your own bet, Tiger.”

Ichigo’s jaw dropped as he watched the interaction, his eyes darting between Asami and Grimmjow.

“The fuck you starin’ at, Kurosaki?” Grimmjow grumbled, unable to hide the slight blush on his cheeks.

“Who _are_ you?”


End file.
